The majority voted in favour of passing the bills. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read them for a third time. This means that the bills will now go to the Senate, where they can decide whether to also pass them so they can become law.

What do the bills do?

The bills are part of an "historic package of reforms" that the Government announced earlier this year that affect free-to-air broadcasting in Australia.

Most controversially, the bills will repeal the ‘2 out of 3 cross-media control rule’, which:

prohibits a person controlling more than two out of three regulated media platforms (that is, a commercial television broadcasting licence, a commercial radio broadcasting licence and an associated newspaper) in any one commercial radio licence area.

The majority voted against an amendment introduced by Australian Labor MP Michelle Rowland (Greenway), which means the amendment failed.

What did the amendment do?

This bill proposes to repeal the ‘2 out of 3 cross-media control rule’, which:

prohibits a person controlling more than two out of three regulated media platforms (that is, a commercial television broadcasting licence, a commercial radio broadcasting licence and an associated newspaper) in any one commercial radio licence area.

The majority voted in favour of the bills' main idea. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read them for a second time. This means that they can now discuss the bills in more detail.

What is the bills' main idea?

The bills are part of an "historic package of reforms" that the Government announced earlier this year that affect free-to-air broadcasting in Australia.

Most controversially, the bills will repeal the ‘2 out of 3 cross-media control rule’, which:

prohibits a person controlling more than two out of three regulated media platforms (that is, a commercial television broadcasting licence, a commercial radio broadcasting licence and an associated newspaper) in any one commercial radio licence area.

The amendments would have deleted schedule 2 from the bill, which would have gotten rid of:

the two out of three cross-media control rule which ... prohibits a person controlling more than two out of three regulated media platforms (that is, a commercial television broadcasting licence, a commercial radio broadcasting licence and an associated newspaper) in any one commercial radio licence area.

How
"voted very strongly against"
is worked out

The MP's votes count towards a weighted average where the most important votes get
50 points,
less important votes get
10 points,
and less important votes for which the MP was absent get
2 points.
In important votes the MP gets awarded the full
50 points
for voting the same as the policy,
0 points
for voting against the policy, and
25 points
for not voting. In less important votes, the MP gets
10 points
for voting with the policy,
0 points
for voting against, and
1
(out of 2)
if absent.

Then, the number gets converted to a simple english language phrase based on the range of values it's within.

No of votes

Points

Out of

Most important votes (50 points)

MP voted with policy

0

0

0

MP voted against policy

5

0

250

MP absent

0

0

0

Less important votes (10 points)

MP voted with policy

0

0

0

MP voted against policy

0

0

0

Less important absentees (2 points)

MP absent*

0

0

0

Total:

0

250

*Pressure of other work means MPs or
Senators are not always available to vote – it does not always
indicate they have abstained. Therefore, being absent on a less
important vote makes a disproportionatly small
difference.